Your B2B firm has dove headfirst into content marketing but what’s the ROI of those project? You’re in luck because this interview will reveal some of those sought-after answers.

Daniel Tolliday is the Content and Inbound Manager at Green Hat, Australia’s largest B2B marketing agency. He regularly contributes to Outbrain, Social Media Examiner, Convince and Convert, and a number of other digital publications.

We caught up with him to chat about analytics and how to get the best ROI out of campaigns. We specifically wanted to see how marketers can get an accurate and realistic view of their results, and how sometimes just looking at the numbers without diving into them can be very misleading.

We also talked about a few common mistakes that marketers make when reviewing their analytics, and how you can market to different stages of the buyer’s journey.

Check out the full interview below:

B2Bnn: What are the best metrics you can use to measure B2B content marketing ROI?

Tolliday: From a B2B perspective, I find the most effective metrics for measuring B2B ROI are opt-in conversions and engagement metrics. For example, email marketing is an “owned” media, so when a prospective customer interested in your product or service gives you their email address they’re giving you permission to guide them on the journey to helping solve their problems.

Of course, it depends on what stage they’re at in the buyer’s journey as to how you help them.

Daniel Tolliday

B2Bnn: What are some common mistakes people make when using Google Analytics when looking at their B2B marketing results?

Tolliday: The biggest mistake people make is using Analytics alone to measure B2B marketing results. It’s vital to get the bigger picture. I find that some marketers place too much emphasis on metrics like bounce rates and time spent on page. These are known as “vanity metrics” and are often misleading. Your bounce rate, and the number of likes and followers you have may make you feel good, but they add almost nothing to your bottom line.

B2Bnn: How can you tell if your stats are misleading? For example, sometimes a high bounce rate can be from people who are just logging on to get your phone number, in which case your page did the job it was supposed to. Wouldn’t you see that is still effective?

Tolliday: Time spent on page can be very misleading and isn’t really a clear indication that someone is engaging with your content. What if they’re conducting research and have several tabs open, including your article – but they’re engaging with another? Tools like CrazyEgg and Optimizely (and others) help solve this problem with heat/click maps, etc.

B2Bnn: What can you do to market to each stage of the buyer’s journey (awareness, consideration, decision)?

Tolliday: The buyer has different information needs throughout each stage of their journey. For example, at the top of the funnel they could be unaware of their problem (or the solution), so it’s important you help address this need. When you do, it helps build trust and loyalty with your business (and people are ultimately more likely to consider your products or services as a solution).

The decision phase often involves reading case studies, white papers or other high quality content that can give them that extra push over the line to making a decision. It’s all about creating and providing value – without pushing them to buy anything until they’re ready. This is called lead nurturing.

B2Bnn: Thanks so much Daniel! Before you go, give us an update on what you’re currently up to.

Tolliday: Each year, Green Hat produces the B2B Marketing Outlook Report, with the upcoming report to be released in March 2016. The 2015 report can be downloaded here.

Scott Huntington

Scott Huntington is a business writer from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His work has appeared in Forbes, Business Insider, Time, Inc, and more. He also covers the automotive industry and writes about cars at Off The Throttle in his free time. Follow him on Twitter at @SMHuntington.